Tag Archives: distractions

The politics is a sideshow

So Trump and the republicans regain power.

Lots to ponder – and not all of it upbeat.

In the face of such a result for the world, it’s important to do what YOU need to do.

How can you help your community? Support those in your life who may be struggling, before or after the election.

What happened yesterday doesn’t have to change your ways. You have not changed fundamentally as a person because of this result.

You still have to do your thing, whatever that is.

Trump and his goons will lick their lips and make life a bit more tricky for those who oppose them.

But it’s worth remembering that the effect this will have on most of us right now is only a feeling.

Take action based on that feeling. Use it as a force for good.

If ever there was a time to prepare your own plans for the next few years, this is it.

Reset, set goals, and take action.

There is life beyond the scroll

Attempting to white-knuckle the task of beating the algorithms to stop or slow down your use of social media is doomed to failure.

The facts are clear if you think about it.

These mammoth tech businesses have armies of the brightest minds working against you as their business model.

Their job is to hijack your attention and keep you coming back for more, over and over again. And they do it so well.

The attention on Instagram, for example, and the seemingly non-stop growth of that attention, transcending age, gender, and social barriers, is off the chain.

Willpower alone is not enough. The algorithms are too strong, too smart, too skilled at keeping you fixated. Our psychological weaknesses as humans are being exploited.

To overcome the alogorithms and move on with a full life, cut them out.

Delete the apps from your device to eliminate that instant fix from your phone.

Reclaim that 2 to 5 to 15 to 50 minute block that you’d spend scrolling inside the app, using it for something practical instead.

Challenge yourself to make this change work. Your mental health and your ability to be productive will thank you later.

Order or chaos?

Everyone prefers a sense of order in their life rather than chaos – generally lower levels of anxiety, better outcomes to projects, work delivered on time, etc – but how many of us actually achieve that state?

How many days start the right way with goals being met and tasks ticked off to-do lists but then go off-track faster than a downhill ski racer taking a tumble at top speed?

It might be the phone notification for a new message, an unplanned inbound call, or some web research that opens up the slippery slope of the internet.

Whatever form a distraction takes, it becomes difficult to get back to the task you were working on once it hits. Your brain reacts well to being focussed and taking deliberate steps as part of your plan, but it loves the distraction even more.

You then have to make a decision to get back on track – one that would not have had to happen if you’d avoided the distraction in the first place.

And it’s in the removal of decisions as we go through each day that lies, to me, the secret of achieving a better order/chaos balance.

I plan the parts of the day that need focussed work and avoid decisions in these slots in oder to deliver my best.

The fewer decisions I have to make, the higher the likelihood I’ll achieve more in the time I have available.

If I have order to the way I work – processes in place, systems to work to, proper scheduling and a set of really simple rules to follow – chaos is off the table. This way, everything continues to move forward and this is always the goal.